Businesses fear negative effects of cyber crime

Phishing and ransomware emails were identified as the most dangerous attack methods.

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Almost two thirds (64 per cent) of all organisations in the world think cyber criminals will leave a negative impact on their business this year. This is according to new research from Mimecast.

According to the report, the majority of organisations (56 per cent) think malicious emails are the number one attack method.

When it comes to the UK specifically, more than six in ten (61 per cent) think they’ll suffer a negative business impact from cyber criminals this year, with 57 per cent seeing an increase in phishing emails in the last three months.

Almost half (47 per cent) have seen phishing emails that target directly their company, or a specific individual. Just below three quarters (73 per cent) believe malicious email attachments are the most likely way they’ll get infected with ransomware.

Mimecast has also used this opportunity to launch an analysis report that measures the effectiveness of email security systems, called Email Security Risk Assessment (ESRA).

“It’s easy to assume that your email security solution is protecting you from advanced attacks. If you don’t have visibility into what’s actually getting delivered to the inboxes of employees, why would you think otherwise? We launched Mimecast ESRA at the request of organizations who wanted an easy way to assess the risks and to see a greater level of detail to help understand the impact to their business,” said Ed Jennings, chief operating officer at Mimecast.

“As we’ve shared the findings with CISOs globally, they’ve been taken aback by the volume and type of attacks getting through their current email security solutions. The visibility this assessment offers is actionable, and is being used to reprioritize their current email security strategies. By launching the Mimecast ESRA, we are helping to establish the new standard of transparency for organizations while at the same time helping to raise the bar for the industry.”